1. Field of Art
This invention relates generally to databases and in particular to storage efficient systems for managing databases.
2. Description of Related Art
Databases store the data that is critical to an organization and thus form an important part of an organization's information technology infrastructure. Database software is often complex and requires experts, for example, database administrators for maintaining the database software. Furthermore, databases store large amount of information. As a result, conventional techniques for performing several database operations are very slow. For example, for purposes of development and testing, developers and/or testers need a copy of a database as it existed at a particular point in time. Providing such database may only be possible if an appropriate backup of the database was taken at that point in time. Assuming the appropriate backup was taken, a database administrator is often required to take appropriate steps to restore the database to the required state. Furthermore, the restore operation can take a long time. The overall delay in interacting with the database administrator and getting the database restored can be significant. As a result, developers and/or testers have to wait for the appropriate test/development database to be available. These delays can be costly for the enterprise as various personnel wait for the appropriate environment to become available. Furthermore, delays in the development and testing process cause further delay in fixing of the problem, resulting in loss of productivity. As a result, conventional techniques for providing a copy of a database corresponding to a particular state are often inadequate.